Man behind the Sloopersized beer dies

Charlie Files, the man owner of the Sloop Tavern in Ballard and Leny’s near Green Lake, died Friday while vacationing in Hawaii, Three Sheets Northwest reported.

“I’ll remember Files for his extraordinarily gracious response to the Sloop’s being named the top-ranked tavern (meaning no hard booze) in my book about Seattle dive bars,” Seattle Weekly Editor in Chief Mike Seely wrote on the paper’s blog. “Adhering to a low-frills aesthetic, Files always put the drinker first–his 33-ounce “Slooper-sized” mugs of beer are the stuff of local legend, and he’s about the only proprietor in town to sponsor a legitimate yacht club that turned the very notion of such blue-blooded cabals on their heads.”

Files also owned Targy’s Tavern on Queen Anne until selling it to Helmer Trestal in 1995. (Trestal sold the bar to Christian Wilson in 2005.)